Look Inside

Learning by Doing

A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work™

The third edition of this comprehensive action guide includes new strategies, tools, and tips for building high-performing professional learning communities. Use the PLC process to establish effective teaching methods, curriculum development, and assessment strategies specific to your school or district.

An Actionable Guide to Implementing the PLC Process in Your School or District

Discover how to close the knowing-doing gap and transform your school or district into a high-performing professional learning community (PLC). The powerful third edition of this comprehensive action guide from experts Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos updates and expands on new and significant PLC topics. Explore fresh strategies, tools, and tips for hiring and retaining new staff, creating team-developed common formative assessment, implementing systematic interventions, and more.

Learn how to establish professional learning communities in schools:

Build a shared knowledge of critical vocabulary and the concepts underlying the PLC process.

Make honest assessments of your school and teaching methods by examining conventional practices from a fresh, critical perspective.

Take immediate and specific steps to close the knowing-doing gap.

Move beyond creating an action plan for school improvement, and start doing.

Changes for the third edition:

Two new chapters: One on team-developed common formative assessment strategies and the second on hiring, orienting, and retaining staff members for your PLC

A stronger focus on districtwide PLC implementation and avoiding common mistakes related to the PLC process

New insight into clarifying the essential standards necessary in a guaranteed and viable curriculum by establishing a collective understanding of best practices in teaching

Suggestions for incorporating a focus on learning and deeper knowledge, as opposed to simple recall of information, into curriculum development and teacher-made assessments

A deeper and more thorough examination of RTI (MTSS) interventions by coauthor Mike Mattos, a leading expert on intervention

Explicit PLC tools and templates that high-performing districts have used

An updated research base, including more than one hundred new references and professional learning community examples

A shift in focus from why educators should implement the PLC process to steps to take immediately in the implementation process

See also, the companion book, Concise Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Professional Learning Communities at Work™, that provides readers with quick answers to help them move beyond specific problems in PLC implementation.

Enhance your study of Learning by Doing with instructional videos aligned to each of the book’s chapters. View the Global PD playlist.

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Additional Information

“Our districtwide success in improving student academic achievement has been a remarkable journey. Learning by Doing has been our road atlas and the PLC concept our GPS as our staff members have built their collective capacity to meet the needs of all students.”

“Learning by Doing is not only the title of an incredibly powerful book, it is also the description of our districts journey over the last five years. Without a doubt, the establishment of PLCs as a district and the deepening of our collaborative culture have had the single greatest impact on student achievement of any of the initiatives we have implemented. It has changed who we are, how we work and, most importantly, our outcomes. Learning by Doing has been our guidebook on the journey and helped us to understand and move from knowing to doing and finally being a professional learning community. I encourage you, read this book and answer the call to action. Once you begin the journey, you will never go back!”